The present application claims priority to Japanese Application No. P2000-108210 filed Apr. 10, 2000, which application is incorporated herein by reference to the extent permitted by law.
The present invention relates to an optical panel device such as an LCD display panel used for a finder of various monitors and cam-coders or a CCD image pickup panel used for CCD cameras, a method of producing the optical panel device, and a method of designing a position of a micro-lens for the optical panel device.
There has been known an optical panel device, such as an LCD display panel or a CCD image pickup panel, of a type in which a micro-lens portion for allowing light to be effectively made incident on each pixel of an optical panel portion composed of an LCD or CCD is provided in close-contact with the optical panel portion.
The micro-lens portion includes micro-lenses each having a lens plane corresponding to each pixel of the optical panel portion, wherein the micro-lenses are provided in a matrix pattern corresponding to an arrangement pattern of the pixels. A positional relationship between each micro-lens and an incident opening of the corresponding pixel exerts a large effect on characteristics (quantity of incident light, effective numerical aperture, etc.) of the optical panel device.
The position of each micro-lens for an optical panel device has been determined by adopting a position designing method in which the opening shape of each pixel of an optical panel portion is taken as an imaginary rectangular shape, and the center position of the micro-lens is aligned to an intersection between diagonals of the rectangular shape of the opening, and the optical panel device has been produced in accordance with such a position designing method.
Such a position designing method has a problem that if the opening shape of each pixel is not a rectangular or square shape, the intersection between the diagonals of the imaginary rectangular shape may often be unstable as the center position of a micro-lens, to reduce a lens efficiency (brightness) or to degrade a margin in positional deviation between an optical panel portion and a micro-lens portion.
On the other hand, there has been disposed a position designing method, wherein the shape of an L-shaped opening of a pixel is divided into a plurality of rectangular elements, and the center position of a micro-lens is aligned to an intersection between diagonals of the selected one of the plurality of rectangular elements (see Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 5-315636).
Such a method may often cause the same problem as that described above because the center position of a micro-lens is set on the basis of part of an opening of a pixel.
An object of the present invention is to provide an optical panel device in which a position of a micro-lens is suitably set to an opening of each pixel of an optical panel portion on the basis of the opening shape of the pixel, a method of producing the optical panel device, and a method of designing a position of a micro-lens for the optical panel device.
To achieve the above object, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical panel device including: an optical panel portion having pixels arranged in a matrix pattern; and a micro-lens portion for controlling light to be made incident on each of the pixels of the optical panel portion; wherein the center position of each micro-lens of the micro-lens portion is aligned to the center of gravity of an opening of each pixel of the optical panel device.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of producing an optical panel device including an optical panel portion having pixels arranged in a matrix pattern and a micro-lens portion for controlling light to be made incident on each of the pixels of the optical panel portion, the method including the steps of: calculating plane coordinates corresponding to the center of gravity of an opening of each of the pixels on the basis of the opening shape of the pixel; setting the center position of a micro-lens of the micro-lens portion to the plane coordinates calculated in the coordinate calculating step; and joining the micro-lenses to the optical panel portion at the positions set in the position setting step.
In the method of producing an optical display device according to the present invention, first, in the coordinate calculating step, plane coordinates corresponding to the center of gravity of an opening of each pixel of an optical panel portion are calculated on the basis of the opening shape of the pixel.
For example, if the opening shape of the pixel of the optical panel portion is a linear symmetric polygonal shape having even sides, such as a square shape, a rectangular shape, a parallelogram shape, a regular hexagonal shape, or a regular octagonal shape, the plane coordinates corresponding to the center of gravity of the opening is calculated on the basis of an intersection between diagonals of the opening.
If the opening shape of the pixel is a polygonal shape having a complicated irregular shape other than a linear symmetric polygonal shape having even sides, the plane coordinates corresponding to the center of gravity of the opening are calculated by an individual calculation method matched to the opening shape.
Next, in the position setting step, the center position of the micro-lens of the micro-lens portion is set to the plane coordinates calculated in the coordinate calculating step.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of designing a position of a micro-lens for an optical panel device including an optical panel portion having pixels arranged in a matrix pattern and a micro-lens portion for controlling light to be made incident on each of the pixels of the optical panel portion, the method including the steps of: calculating plane coordinates corresponding to the center of gravity of an opening of each of the pixels on the basis of the opening shape of the pixel; and setting the center position of a micro-lens of the micro-lens portion to the plane coordinates calculated in the coordinate calculating step.
In the method of designing a position of a micro-lens for an optical display device according to the present invention, first, in the coordinate calculating step, plane coordinates corresponding to the center of gravity of an opening of each pixel of an optical panel portion are calculated on the basis of the opening shape of the pixel.
For example, if the opening shape of the pixel of the optical panel portion is a linear symmetric polygonal shape having even sides, such as a square shape, a rectangular shape, a parallelogram shape, a regular hexagonal shape, or a regular octagonal shape, the plane coordinates corresponding to the center of gravity of the opening is calculated on the basis of an intersection between diagonals of the opening.
If the opening shape of the pixel is a polygonal shape having a complicated irregular shape other than a linear symmetric polygonal shape having even sides, the plane coordinates corresponding to the center of gravity of the opening are calculated by an individual calculation method matched to the opening shape.
Next, in the position setting step, the center position of the micro-lens of the micro-lens portion is set to the plane coordinates calculated in the coordinate calculating step.
With these configurations, since the position of a micro-lens can be suitably set to an opening of each pixel of an optical panel portion on the basis of the opening shape of the pixel, the design of a position of a micro-lens for an optical display device can be desirably performed; an optical display device can be desirably produced by suitably setting the positions of micro-lenses; and such an optical display device can be provided. As a result, it is possible to improve the lens efficiency (brightness) as compared with the related art method, and also to improve a margin of positional deviation between an optical panel portion and a micro-lens portion.